GNAC-final week of league play:

[northernGNAChoopfan]

Tuesday:

UAA @ UAF - UAF must win to get into the GNAC tourney. UAA has shown a lot more mental toughness in recent weeks in pulling out wins when things aren't going perfectly. UAF has looked on and off a train-wreck the last few weeks, but just like always; winning against UAA isn't a matter of UAA being *so much* better, it's more a matter of executing, being mentally tough for 40 mins~something UAA has been much better at in the last 5 years or so. We'll see. Ya'll know how I feel. I won't be online tomorrow night no matter what. You can think of me either crying into a bottle of something or doing a happy dance... Might take the rest of the week off, so ya'll need to post scores if I do. I'll be back for the tourney next week, no matter who's playing and who isn't. While it's not the game of the week and could easily become sorta an ugly game, if you live in Alaska it's the game going on.... Tuesday???? Why I ask the GNAC, why Tuesday. We'll be lucky to have 600 there!

Thursday:

CWU @ SPU - The underrated game of the week. Teams are locked in the standings and may likely play eachother the following week as well.

WWU @ WOU - Game of the week. Pretty sure lots of folks are going to be tuned in to this one.

UAF @ MSUB - It remains to be seen if UAF & MSUB are playing for pride only or if UAF can claw its way back into the post season picture.

SFU @ CU -

NNU @ SMU - NNU has a remote chance of clawing their way back in too (gotta completely pass UAF and get themselves into a win in a tie-breaker with UAA (which would be winning this game). SMU is locked into the 3rd seed in the tourney, so they could let up on the gas, but hopefully they won't.

Saturday:

NNU @ SPU -

SFU @ WOU -

WWU @ CU -

UAA @ MSUB -

CWU @ SMU -

We'll see what all these games mean after we get through Tuesday and Thursday, heh?

[tsull]

Re: GNAC-final week of league play:

D2 season goes by so quickly, D-1 drags on and on. Sad to see it end, of course, because these are historical times for WOU basketball the last 4/5 years and I know like anyone we're just a good coach leaving/bad coach coming in from it all going away. Nothing is a given in athletics, it has to be earned. The GNAC tourney should be a good one based on the teams I've seen play this year. So happy for what coach Shaw has accomplished at his alma mater, I'm sure he's going to be tough to keep after 31-4 and 25-1 seasons in 2 of the last 3 years.

My 2nd favorite GNAC team, NNU, probably can't get into the league tourney. Just don't get this team, they sure eyeball well with athletic talent and basketball skill. I've seen 5 coaches come and go at NNU in the last 15 years here, no one seems to have the magic bullet to get it turned around, though I think coach Rush has them headed in the right direction.

No matter what happens, GNAC ball is always fun ... D-1 ball is losing me more every year, huge scandal coming up, multiple schools nailed, titles taken away, etc., according to Yahoo sports. D2 ball may not be perfect, but I feel good about it at the end of the day and don't feel dirty watching it, like I do D-1.

[Rob_AK]

Re: GNAC-final week of league play:

GNAC fan,
it was a pretty ugly game, I suppose more so for UAF than UAA. I haven't checked the tiebreaker, thought I would wait and see what NNU does Thurs. If I recall correctly, the win over WOU might give NNU the edge, if they win both this weekend and UAA loses at MSUB. We will see what happens. I don't have any great hope for the UAA men, but would like to see them get to play on home court once more. AS i had stated earlier, that would be a successful season considering their loss of a couple of important players.

[tsull]

Re: GNAC-final week of league play:

GNAC fan,
it was a pretty ugly game, I suppose more so for UAF than UAA. I haven't checked the tiebreaker, thought I would wait and see what NNU does Thurs. If I recall correctly, the win over WOU might give NNU the edge, if they win both this weekend and UAA loses at MSUB. We will see what happens. I don't have any great hope for the UAA men, but would like to see them get to play on home court once more. AS i had stated earlier, that would be a successful season considering their loss of a couple of important players.

NNU didn't beat WOU this year ... or are you talking women's hoops?

[tsull]

Re: GNAC-final week of league play:

Wolves win 89-73, up by more than 20 most of the game. Crowd looked big on video.

[BillyBronco]

Re: GNAC-final week of league play:

Watched the game tsull. I was very impressed by your bigs, as well as your d at times. We had to major upsets in the CCAA that I'll post tomm that will shake up the region. Question, are the wolves this good and elite or is the gnac that down this year? I now understand why the committee doesn't give any love to western Washington lol.

[SGAstumpJ]

Re: GNAC-final week of league play:

NNU didn't beat WOU this year ... or are you talking women's hoops?

Well, they did take Anchorage out behind the woodshed in the second half tonight. I'm trying to figure out how big a fruit basket to send to Nampa. If our girls win out, that may be enough to swing their regional back down here.

[tsull]

Re: GNAC-final week of league play:

Well, they did take Anchorage out behind the woodshed in the second half tonight. I'm trying to figure out how big a fruit basket to send to Nampa. If our girls win out, that may be enough to swing their regional back down here.

Huge win by NNU women, even made the front page of the sports section in Boise, excellent article. NNU women are tough this year and have had 4 coaches in 4 years, but the players stuck together.

* Regarding is WOU this good? Not sure, I personally am impressed with their toughness, not sure they're as good as the Final 4 team from a couple years ago, who had the west coast player of the year in Andy Avgi. That team, however, didn't have the bench that this year's team has. That team really closed well in the final stretches of games, making clutch free throws and game-winning shots. This year's team has blown a lot of people out and are still good closers. Omlid is the closest thing to a superstar WOU has this year, he's quite good, but not the huge scorer that Avgi was most every night, though he can explode for big games. WOU has the ability to try a lot of options with all their depth, Omlid sat out a long time in the first half last night and they still built a 20-point lead.

[northernGNAChoopfan]

Re: GNAC-final week of league play:

GNAC fan,
it was a pretty ugly game, I suppose more so for UAF than UAA. I haven't checked the tiebreaker, thought I would wait and see what NNU does Thurs. If I recall correctly, the win over WOU might give NNU the edge, if they win both this weekend and UAA loses at MSUB. We will see what happens. I don't have any great hope for the UAA men, but would like to see them get to play on home court once more. AS i had stated earlier, that would be a successful season considering their loss of a couple of important players.

I could not disagree more Rob. As you likely have noticed by now, NNU did not beat WOU this year either. The game was a defensive grind. The stats tell the same story-it was close in every regard. I would say it was actually uglier for UAA if you consider the entire game. There was a UAF turnover near the end that cost them dearly and obviously Ursery made a great shot, and that is what it came down to. It's a real stinger this year because of the easy win in Montana and the fact that UAF had the tiebreaker on UAA to get in, in addition to the continued hex they have against UAA. In the end UAA has been able to close out these close ones much better than UAF. I think the thing that makes this one worse than others in recent years is the fact that UAF has 3 Alaskans in the starting lineup, Ursery is a one year DI dropdown and lacked any amount of humility after making that shot and it's plain to see Durham despises Osborne as much if not more than I do. I hope that Durham can keep the team together and hang in there for one more year and see if he can find a few more pieces to complete the young team he's got now. I was pleased with the crowd too-it doesn't measure up by Tsull's standards, but for a Tuesday night between big storms, it was a great turnout and a loud crowd. Really fun till that last minute!

[northernGNAChoopfan]

Re: GNAC-final week of league play:

Tuesday:

UAA 44 @ UAF 43 - In combination with UAA's win here and NNU's loss on Thursday, the 6 teams are now decided-no drama other than seeding tonight. The hex continues for UAF. They just had a real hard time finding 5 players who were all ready for that pressure on Tuesday. Joe had a terrible game and then when the pressure was let up, he played great in Montana... Gotta get tougher!

Thursday:

CWU 69 @ SPU 82-

WWU 73 @ WOU 89 - Nice job leaving no doubt that the only blemish on your record is an anomoly Wolves.

UAF 69 @ MSUB 59 - There was never really any doubt that UAF was getting this one-the score is closer than the game was. Glad the boys got to end on this note, even if it made Tuesday's loss sting more.

SFU 58 @ CU 60 - And Concordia gets a win!

NNU 64 @ SMU 71 - Let's go Saints. Time to get the Wildcats too.

Saturday:

NNU @ SPU -

SFU @ WOU -

WWU @ CU -

UAA @ MSUB -

CWU @ SMU -

Looks like SPU has the tie breaker on UAA & CWU, so they seem to have locked up the 4th seed. CWU has the tiebreaker on UAA... It's more likely that UAA will win in Montana and CWU will lose in Olympia than both teams will win or both will lose though, so if I were going to bet on it, I'd say UAA will get the 5th seed by winning tonight and CWU the 6th by losing. Now that I said it, there could be chaos though, right?

[northernGNAChoopfan]

Re: GNAC-final week of league play:

Question, are the wolves this good and elite or is the gnac that down this year? I now understand why the committee doesn't give any love to western Washington lol.

My thought is that yes, the Wolves are very good. They are not "unbeatable" but they are in a different league than the rest of the GNAC. I can't say if that is true for the region, but given the Wolves record agains the CCAA & PW and how the PW & CCAA have beat up on eachother, it appears that they are in a different league than the rest of the region as well.

I'll disagree with Tsull a little though in comparing them to their 2016 final four team. I think this team is WAY better than the 2016 team. Their depth this year is amazing and their athletic talent better too. Coach Shaw makes amazing adjustments and pays incredibly close attention to minute details and he's got the talent that can make the subtlest of adjustments that make huge differences. It always takes a little luck once you are into the elite 8, or a different level of forgiveness for mistakes there, but I would not be surprised to see this team go farther... Omlid and Avgi are both incredible players. I think Omlid controls the whole game more than Avgi did though. Omlid simply does not need to do as much as Avgi needed to do with regard to the rest of the team's performance though. Which team would I adopt to cheer for though? 2016 team in a heartbeat. Lots of 4 year guys who played through their freshman seasons together and grew very good together over time.

All that said though, Omlid and crew will soon find themselves on a stage where poor shooting will not be as easy to overcome on a nightly basis.

[tsull]

Re: GNAC-final week of league play:

Agree, Northern, this team might be better, so much depth this year. I watched them at SPU this year and the guards were a bit selfish. The second time I watched them live, Morgan, Ali, etc., passed it more and better. Having a quick, versatile post like Chirnside coming off the bench is excellent; he'd start on most WOU teams of the past. Boughman struggled against NNU and J.J. came in and took over. Omlid also doesn't have to score a ton to be affective (he has a defensive play on video this year that's remarkable, block shot where he is way up in the air). So yeah, this team is probably better. I really have an affinity to that Final 4 team, met some of the players, great guys, they really stuck together ... so has this team. I take nothing for granted, however, there are some good teams in this region.

* Happy with the 1,100 at the WWU game on Thursday, wish they had 2,500 like CWU did for WWU, but in Monmouth, I'll take the 4-digit crowd.

[Rob_AK]

Re: GNAC-final week of league play:

I could not disagree more Rob. As you likely have noticed by now, NNU did not beat WOU this year either. The game was a defensive grind. The stats tell the same story-it was close in every regard. I would say it was actually uglier for UAA if you consider the entire game. There was a UAF turnover near the end that cost them dearly and obviously Ursery made a great shot, and that is what it came down to. It's a real stinger this year because of the easy win in Montana and the fact that UAF had the tiebreaker on UAA to get in, in addition to the continued hex they have against UAA. In the end UAA has been able to close out these close ones much better than UAF. I think the thing that makes this one worse than others in recent years is the fact that UAF has 3 Alaskans in the starting lineup, Ursery is a one year DI dropdown and lacked any amount of humility after making that shot and it's plain to see Durham despises Osborne as much if not more than I do. I hope that Durham can keep the team together and hang in there for one more year and see if he can find a few more pieces to complete the young team he's got now. I was pleased with the crowd too-it doesn't measure up by Tsull's standards, but for a Tuesday night between big storms, it was a great turnout and a loud crowd. Really fun till that last minute!

Sorry if the wounds are still fresh.
Yeah, I guess I misremembered - it was WWU that trounced WOU this year (must have thought it was NNU because it was one of tsull's favorite teams lol).
As for the UAA-UAF game, I watched most of it. Thought the shooting was atrocious on both sides - can't ever recall seeing so many shots that were not even close to going in - you can credit defense and I am sure that had something to do with it, but I was not impressed by the shooting of either team. Only reason I said it was more ugly for UAF was the final score. I am sure Ursery was downright humble compared to Oleson in the old days, lol. Maybe there is a little of the bitter rivalry of old starting to come back. I have some of my own issues with Osborne so won't hold that against you. Hope you guys can hang on to Durham - other than the lack of success against UAA recently, he has done a very nice job and would be hard to replace.

As for the UAA women, they definitely laid an egg in the second half against NNU. Hard to beat a team that shoots like NNU did, especially if you play poorly. We will see what happens if they get to play a rubber game in the GNAC tourney. All things being equal NNU has the advantage in a bid for the regional - I think that being located in Alaska is good for the equivalent of another loss in the selection process based upon prior experience. Not expecting to see UAA play here in NCAA. They seem to play better on the road in the tourney anyway.